


Arc 2 - Planning and Scheming

by Joe_Reaves



Series: Huminals [16]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Human, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Animals, Conspiracy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-14
Updated: 2010-04-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joe_Reaves/pseuds/Joe_Reaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The plot thickens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arc 2 - Planning and Scheming

Lester rubbed his temples as soon as the door closed behind the wildcat. He almost wished they hadn't captured their prey. He had a feeling she was going to be more trouble than she was worth. He decided to call the Minister before he went to see Helen. After what Lieutenant Lyle had said about her, Lester thought that was a pleasure that should be postponed as long as possible.

When he finally turned the videophone off half an hour later, he was beginning to rethink that. Helen Cutter might be annoying but at least she was meant to be. If someone kidnapped him and locked him up, he'd probably be annoying too. The Minister was supposed to be on his side though.

He stood up and stretched, knowing his feathers were standing on edge from frustration. What he wouldn't give right now for a chance to have someone smooth them all out, preferably the smart-mouthed wildcat he'd sent off to shower and change before calling the Minister. He allowed himself to imagine the cat in the shower for a moment, water slicking his fur, strong muscles rippling underneath the brown fur as he lathered himself up ... Lester cleared his throat and straightened his spine. That was enough of that. He had a job to do and fantasising about the gorgeous but tragically straight wildcat wasn't going to get it done.

He headed for the interrogation room, pondering the conversation he'd just had with the Minister. All the Minister was worried about was whether they'd captured their target, what she'd told them about the colony ship, and how fast he could get an expedition together to act on her information and investigate it. The fact that two of the five men sent to find her had been injured, albeit not seriously, had been dismissed as inconsequential. Lester was not amused. He had a reputation for getting the job done, no matter what it was, which was why he'd been assigned to this task. But he also had a reputation amongst the fighting packs for not risking their lives needlessly and that reputation was just as important to him, if not to the government.

This expedition was being rushed, just like the mission to capture Helen Cutter had been. At least he could understand why that had been time sensitive. As far as he was aware, the colony ship had been lost for over seven hundred years, a few weeks more couldn't possibly make any difference. Which meant the Minister knew something he didn't, something about what was inside that ship. He didn't like the idea that they were holding something back. Still, whatever it was, Helen probably knew it by now so all he had to do was convince her to talk.

\------------

When Lester left Helen's cell several hours later he was none the wiser but much, much more irritated. "Lyle should have dropped her in the ocean on his way back," he muttered. "We'd all have been better off."

He sat at his desk and made a list of everything he needed to do to start on the expedition to the colony ship. Number one on his list was find out everything he could about the ship so he could work on figuring out everything the Minister wasn't telling him. Since he wasn't going to be getting any answers from Helen Cutter, he was going to the one person she might have confided in and the one person she might still talk to even despite her arrest – the pre-eminent expert on huminal history and evolution on Inicio. Her ex-husband: Professor Nick Cutter.

He was also going to have to find some time to talk to the Alpha pair of the thirteenth outside of his office where no one could overhear them and tell him what was going on. Then he'd have to have a meeting with them in his office and on the record, for appearances. At least he could trust Captain Ryan to organise the transport and everything, all he would have to do was marshal their civilians and make sure everyone turned up at the departure point on time and with everything they needed.

He knew that if he was going to be in close quarters with the pack on this mission he should probably stop fantasising about Lieutenant Lyle. If he was going to have to fly to the back end of beyond and endure the hellish climate there on a mission to find something that his superiors didn't want to tell him about in advance, he was damn well going to get some pleasure out of it. And his fantasies really were very pleasurable. Although since the Lieutenant was straight, it wasn't like his fantasies could ever become reality and endanger their working relationship.

Pressing the intercom to summon his secretary, he pasted his most innocent smile on his face. "Tomorrow is going to be very busy, so I'm taking the rest of the afternoon off. I'll see you in the morning."

Lester stood up and pulled his jacket on, fastening the bottom of it around his wings, and then tugging it into place in front of the mirror. He smiled. He looked good, as usual. Strolling out of his office he made a detour via a local coffee shop to make sure he wasn't being followed and then headed for the barracks. The alpha pair both lived outside of the barracks, but at this time of the day he knew they'd be with their pack and with that many soldiers around no one would be able catch them unawares.

He wouldn't admit it to anyone else, but he was a little nervous about meeting the pack on what was their home territory. The Fighting Pack as a whole was somewhat intimidating if you were an outsider. Lester preferred to hold meetings with their leaders in his office, but the meeting at the barracks was unavoidable in this case.

Taking a deep breath, Lester pushed the main door to the building open and then hesitated in the hallway. He doubted the building was as unguarded as it appeared so someone would presumably be out to greet him shortly. He suspected that just walking in as if he owned the place instead of waiting for someone to come and fetch him would be a sure way of getting this meeting off to a very bad start.

A large black bear ambled out of the shadows, towering over Lester and making him feel slightly nervous. He took another long, claiming breath and forced himself to relax, repeating to himself that there was no danger here. Unfortunately, his instincts were not so easily controlled and the bear made a very intimidating first impression.

"Doyle, isn't it?" he asked, his trademark poker face and cool manner still in place despite his nerves. Not that that would fool another huminal, but most of them would be too polite to mention it as long as his façade didn't crack.

"That's right," the bear said, smiling lazily.

Lester almost rolled his eyes as Doyle did his best to live up to every stereotype of his species and doled out words as if he had to pay for them. "I'm looking for your Alpha pair. I have something to discuss with them."

"They're out back. Watching the game." Doyle gestured with his head towards the large doors on the other side of the foyer.

"I need to talk to them in private," Lester added, beginning to get slightly irritated. He was used to people doing exactly what he wanted as soon as he wanted.

"You'd better talk to Ryan about that, but no one will listen if he tells them not to. You'll be as private out there as in any office."

Lester nodded his thanks, guessing he'd got as much help from the bear as he was going to get, and walked towards the doors. They opened under the lightest of touches and light flooded into the building from a spacious courtyard. Along one side was an awning and Lester could see several people reclining under it, talking and drinking. In the middle of the courtyard the two lionesses were, from the looks of it, running rings around two wolves as they played some kind of ball game.

He could see the alpha pair, along with Lyle, plus a very pregnant female wolf, another wolf he believed was their medic, and a Tasmanian devil, who he thought was Lyle's second in command, under the awning. There were also a couple of other people he didn't know – a young grey wolf and a hawk of some kind.

As he approached, Ryan gestured sharply with his head and the young wolf ran off to join in the game while the hawk took off and perched on a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Ryan looked up at him curiously, but didn't shift from his lazy slouch, a bottle of something dangling carelessly from his fingers.

Lester recognised the move for what it was, a statement of Ryan's superiority here on his home territory. "Captain Ryan." He looked around at the group of huminals, relaxing in the shade. "I need to talk to you and your alpha female in private."

"Anything you have to say can be said here," Ryan told him. Gesturing at the group he introduced them. "You know Claudia and Lyle. Kalti is his second in command. Raksha is the leader of White Squad, although as you can tell she's not on active duty right now, and Ditzy is her second."

Lester held out his hand to Raksha, the pregnant wolf, and the medic, who he hadn't met properly before. He carefully lowered himself into a chair and looked around at them seriously. "Nothing I have to say can go any further. The Minister has no idea I'm here and I'd like it to stay that way."

Ryan sat up and then leaned forwards towards Lester. "Why not? What's going on?" he asked suspiciously.

Lester sighed. "I don't have any proof that anything is, just a feeling." He looked around them quickly, trying to gauge from their body language if they were willing to at least hear him out. "It's about Lyle's last mission and the next one that you'll all be going on."

Lyle growled. "I knew that bitch was going to be trouble." He rubbed his arm thoughtfully.

Taking a deep breath, Lester looked at Ryan seriously. "Helen Cutter found something while she was in the desert. The colony ship that brought everyone to this planet in the first place. The Minister wants a large team to go out there and secure it. The 13th are being assigned the mission, along with some scientists, and, unfortunately, me. The Minister wants the team out there as soon as possible. They're supplying a plane and anything we need as long as we leave within the month."

Lyle furrowed his brow. "I'm no academic, but why the rush? It's an old rusty ship. If it's survived this long surely it'll survive a bit longer. Unless there's something in it that's more fragile... But surely whatever it is will have disintegrated by now. It's been centuries since anyone else was there."

Lester shrugged. "I don't know. I couldn't get anyone to tell me anything and Helen Cutter was no use either. Especially since I couldn't ask her right out because I don't trust her as far as I could throw her."

"Lyle and I could get her to talk," Kalti muttered. "I'd enjoy giving that bitch some of her own medicine."

"And let everyone know that we know they're hiding something," Ryan said sharply. "We're only responsible for guarding her now, not interrogating her."

"I have a theory," Lester said. "But I don't know how plausible it is. I think she found the ship and somehow set something off – a security system or a communication beacon or something. Something that means whatever was there isn't as protected as it was. But they're not sure what's there. If they were certain they'd have to tell us because we'd find out anyway. They think there's something there but they're not sure. If they're right then we'll find it. It has to be something we'll know is valuable or they're risking us not bringing whatever it is back with us anyway. But if they're wrong then they don't even want us to know their theories."

"Well, I hate to sound like a wet blanket," Raksha said. "But if it's so sensitive that they don't even want the possibility of its existence known until they're certain, then what's to stop them getting rid of any inconvenient witnesses after we've brought it back."

"They couldn't make an entire fighting pack disappear, not without people noticing," Ditzy said. He looked around at the others who weren't looking so sure.

"Whatever it is, if we don't go we'll be in just as much danger because they'll think we know more than we do," Claudia pointed out. "And they'll only send someone else, maybe mercenaries. I'd rather we were the ones to find whatever it is, wouldn't you?"

Ryan nodded. "We'll come to your office tomorrow, Lester and you can tell us officially about the mission. I can have my people ready to go in a week. It'll probably take longer for you to organise your scientists. They tend to be slow and stubborn in my experience." He sighed. "I hate taking civilians on a mission."

"Well, you're going to hate this even more then," Lester said dryly. "I'm going to hire Helen's ex husband as our chief scientist."

"Oh hell no!" Lyle said immediately. "Surely there has to be someone else you can get."

"He's the foremost expert on huminal history on the planet and if Helen was interested in that ship she might have confided in him." Lester was determined to take Professor Cutter, but he didn't want any unnecessary conflict between the pack and the civilians.

"How do you know it's not human history we should be studying?" Kalti asked.

"I don't. It's just a suspicion. There's something important, something sensitive in there and what could be more sensitive than something to do with us and our origins?"

"That's a heck of a jump," Claudia said, suspiciously.

"He's right," Lyle said suddenly, making them all look at him.

Lester raised an eyebrow. It was nice to have someone backing him up, but he had no idea why the wildcat suddenly sounded so sure.

Lyle shrugged when they all looked at him. "I just know he's right. It's important to our history and it has to be us who finds it."

"Right, well you hire your scientists," Ryan told Lester. "And I'll get the pack sorted. And watch out for yourself. If they think you're suspicious you might be in danger and I'd hate to have to break in a new boss at this stage."

Lester blinked at him. They'd gone from discussing whether to go or not, to Ryan acting as if it was all decided.

Claudia smiled and leaned over towards him. "Lyle has these feelings occasionally. We've learned to listen to them. If he says we need to go on this mission then we'll go."

Ryan nodded as if he'd just made a decision. "We can't afford to lose you right now. Lyle, pack your kit and go with Lester. Until we take off for Expiatorio, you're his shadow. You don't let him out of your sight. If anyone asks, you're his assistant. You're learning the administrative side. And if they ask any more than that it's none of their damn business."

"Don't I get a say in this matter?" Lester asked, shortly.

"No!" Lyle, Ryan, and Claudia all spoke at the same time.

If he hadn't been so irritated, Lester would have found it amusing. "And exactly how am I meant to talk Professor Cutter into joining the mission with Lyle following me around like a puppy? Hi, we'd like you to come with us into the middle of fucking nowhere and oh yes, this is the guy that arrested your wife. By the way, that bandage is because she took a chunk out of his arm ..."

Lyle muffled a laugh, quite certain that he didn't want to get in the middle of a fight between his pack leader and James Lester.

"You look like a bright man, I'm sure you'll think of something," Ryan told him. "I don't want to risk you having an accident and them replacing you with some obnoxious little toady who is going to get us all killed."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but he's going to get in my way." Lester paused. "When you say he has to stick with me until we leave, are you suggesting he should stay with me? At my house?" He looked appalled at the idea and Lyle couldn't hold back the snicker this time. "This isn't funny!" he snapped at the wild cat.

"It's also not negotiable," Ryan told him, firmly. "You could be in danger. Lyle is staying with you. You'll just have to learn to ignore him. Goodness knows the rest of us have had to." He smiled and Lester couldn't help but smile back.

"Fine. I suppose I can put up with him for a couple of weeks." He looked at Ryan and smoothed his expression into his normal poker face. "I hope he's house trained."

Ryan burst out laughing, drawing the eyes of the entire pack to him even as Lyle spluttered indignantly. Raising his drink to Lester appreciatively, Ryan nodded. "You'll do, James. You'll do."


End file.
